Joseph Goebbels Essay
In the 1930s, Hitler and his Nazi regime led an enormous campaign of propaganda to spread lies about the Jews. During this time, Europe was desperately deciding on how they should deal with the situation. They didn’t want another world war, but they had to do something. The more people that converted to Nazism, the harder it was going to be to stop Germany. The man in charge of all the anti-Semitic propaganda at the time was Joseph Goebbels. Goebbels was responsible for the dehumanization of millions of Jews in the 1930s to 1940s.
Once he accomplished this, the elimination of Jews didn’t seem like murder at all to the people he brainwashed. Joesph Goebbels discovered Nazism in 1924 (Encyclopedia Americana). He obtained full control over the “mouth” department of the Nazis in 1928. He became the prime minister of said department,and that’s when things started to pick up. Goebbels used propaganda in a way that it made like the Jews were inferior and worthless. One could compare them to the untouchables of the Indian caste system. Anyway, Goebbels was a master of propaganda.
In fact, he exaggerated it so much, that even he didn’t believe what he was producing. T. R. Hughs from the Sunday Telegraph states “If Goebbels believed his own propaganda, it could have been embarrassing. ” This statement shows that Goebbels blatantly stretched the truth in order to gain power for Germany. He preached a distorted view of the Jews and their ways. Goebbels had a wide variety of propaganda in stock. He had movies made, posters created, and songs conjured to promote Nazism. He even had celebrities speak highly of Nazism to the public (“Goebbels:Master of Propaganda”, J.Dick). He portrayed them as normal means of entertainment, but there was always a hidden message of sorts within it. Goebbels favorite form of propaganda was movies.
He saw the potential movies had to reach the subconscious of a person (“Goebbels:Master of Propaganda”, J. Dick) Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels were pretty tightly knit with each other. Hitler saw Goebbels’ potential and used that potential to convert more people into Nazism. Goebbels was extremely devoted to Hitler as well. As stated by P.Miller in Evil genius of Hitler’s Propaganda Machine: Goebbels’ Diaries, “Whenever Hitler spoke, Goebbels saw to it that his words got the right reception. ” In a diary belonging to Goebbels, it states, “Together with Bolshevism, Jewry will also experience it’s great catastrophe. ” This quote shows us that Hitler, with Goebbels’ help, gained allies and was able to persecute the Jews to an extreme extent. In conclusion, Joseph Goebbels was a very influential man, he fooled thousands of people into a lie that he didn’t even believe in.
Not to mention he was Hitler’s right hand when it came to the socialist department of the Nazis. Even though he was the runt of the litter (weak left foot, small, thin stature) he was able to manipulate the minds of millions. He eventually saw that Hitler’s “Reign of Terror” was deteriorating, so he took his and his entire family’s lives. Goebbels and his wife died in a similar fashion as Hitler and his wife. They both were underground, and shot each other at the same time.
